Jean Sibelius: Six Impromptus Op. 5: Piano Solo

The piano runs through Jean Sibelius’s oeuvre like a red thread. After some first student pieces, he composed the Sonata op. 12 (EB 8142) in 1893, and his first cycle of piano pieces, the Six Impromptus op. 5. Here the Finnish composer self-assuredly takes up a great romantic genre significantly shaped by Schubert and Chopin. Sibelius draws inspiration from some of his own early works in this composition, yet he also uses the last two pieces from opus 5 as the groundwork for an autonomous "Impromptu" for string orchestra which he put together shortly after completing the piano pieces. "You must judge me on the basis of my orchestral works. The piano does not interest me. It cannot sing," said Sibelius. Yet how seriously can we take this famous quote when considering how masterfully he crossed the boundaries with his Impromptus? Pianists such as Ralf Gothoni, Glenn Gould and Olli Mustonen have not let themselves be deterred by the composer’s harsh self-criticism, and, with their interpretations, have provided compelling proof of the opposite.